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Transmedia Triumph

It’s all about shared experiences! Gone are the days where we are entirely dependent on the newspaper and television to gain content knowledge of what is going on in the world. With converging technology, a combination of channels are now used that allow engagement with content e.g. smartphones, tabloids etc.

Through the adoption and usage of multiple devices by users, has prompted the need for a consistent experience across channels, which brings me to talk about transmediality.

I sense you wondering: what is this “transmediality”?

Well, Harry Jenkins describes it as a process in which multiple delivery channels are used for dispersing elements of a story, in order to create a unified entertainment experience for an audience.

In simple terms –> unfolding pieces of a story on different platforms and having each platform add a new aspect.

My chosen technology Instagram is capable of contributing meaningfully to a transmedia narrative.

A transmediality is created through storytelling experience when photos are uploaded to Instagram. Through Instagram, photos can be shared, liked and commented on which allows users to have a conversation around the content.

A good example is a restaurant, Libretto, which has used Instagram to help tell stories about their products. Photos of menu items have been uploaded to their Instagram where they tile to form a whole pie. When a user clicks on the photo they are provided with background information about the item, with each “slice” providing a different piece of information.

In this example, each part of the story has its own narrative and together, they link to create a consistent, multi-sensory story.

As Moore accurately pointed out in the lecture ‘transmediality requires a high degree of co-ordination across the different media sectors’. Instagram allows for transmediality to take place as users scroll through their newsfeed on a day-to-day basis, which could be said that they are enacting these aspects and roles of the story through their everyday life.